# Lockdown Mode

51 Hacker News commenters recommended Lockdown Mode and 27 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 10 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 1 years (6 owners).

**Verdict:** Built-in iPhone setting that cuts attack surface against spyware and exploits; no successful spyware attacks reported on enabled devices. Caveat: breaks some web features and attachments.

## Why people recommend it

- Blocks spyware and exploit attacks (7 comments): "When I turned on lockdown mode on my iPhone, there were a few notifications where the random spam calls I get were attempting a FaceTime exploit." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46887819)) "Apple even has an answer for this as well with Lockdown mode which renders all of those previous exploits impossible." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48840590)) "there have been numerous exposed, active iOS exploitation campaigns of which none have worked against Lockdown mode" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48152719))
- Protects journalists and sensitive sources (4 comments): "It is for journalists to not reveal their sources, whom might be at risk of severe consequences including death." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46887329)) "if you are the kind of person these exploits are likely to target, you should have it on" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47682498)) "if you use iPhones and have reason to be really paranoid, consider using lockdown mode" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47035226))
- Minor impact on daily use (4 comments): "other than occasionally disabling it in Safari for websites it seems to work flawlessly for me" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50222159)) "So far, the impact has been negligible, though some apps and websites just don't work." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47546642)) "From what I can see in Apple docs, aside from web limitations it sounds great" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50214930))
- Blocks attacks through messages (2 comments): "It's good to see Apple's Lockdown mode having such success by simply disabling message attachments." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47545215)) "the other protections outside of web browsing seem to make it worth enabling lockdown mode" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46887649))

## What people warn about

- Breaks some websites, apps and features (4 comments): "Except for disabled Javascript compilation possibly slowing down web sites, not getting some attachments in messages" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48150794)) "iOS in lockdown mode has multiple features disabled (or crippled, depending on how you look at it)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45781676)) "You basically lose up to 95% of performance in anything remotely resembling a JS heavy web app." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50216479))
- All-or-nothing, too broad for most (4 comments): "requires enabling a mode that is much broader, and sounds like it has a noticeable impact on device functionality." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46886532)) "I wish the features of Lockdown Mode were able to be enabled individually instead of a single all or none option." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50212161)) "That should be the default behavior, not a special lock down option that also disables other features." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48153949))
- Claims unproven; seen as cope (3 comments): "It's basically an admission the model failed, with features turned off so users feel like they're doing something about it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46838856)) "Claiming reduced attack surface without showing which exploit classes are actually eliminated is faith, not security." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46840271)) "which is essentially cope mechanism and Apple way of saying "we care about security, trust us bro"" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47946944))

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Lockdown Mode", https://hackerapproved.com/p/apple-lockdown-mode/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).